Plainly greed has so over-powered the Chief Minister that he has ceased to care about the blatant nature of his constant grabbing from Sarawak. The latest daylight raid was announced yesterday with the granting of the 4th big project in his so-called SCORE development master-plan. SCORE (Sarawak Corridor of ‘Renewable’ Energy) involves flooding much of […]
The name of the company is Natalite Investment Limited and it is based in Hong Kong. We can now reveal, after extensive investigations into the papers of Ross Boyert, the former manager of Taib’s US property company Sakti International, how Natalite Investment Ltd links the Chief Minister to the Japanese timber kickback scandal, which he
Sarawak Report has received secret maps revealing that a planned BN announcement of land allocations for the displaced families of Sungai Asap is merely a sham. The maps show that the 32,000 hectares that BN are proposing to offer in a pre-election gambit to win back votes are in fact gazetted as Pesu-Pelong Protected Forest Area
Australia’s respected Sunday paper The Age is bristling with headlines about Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s brother Onn today. “Tycoon dodges millions in land tax”, “Dubious dealings” and “Catch him if you can, the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia’s second richest man” are the titles for a series of detailed exposes about Onn, who was Taib’s key
As news pours in about the enormous scale of attempted vote-buying currently underway in Sarawak, we can reveal more horrifying details from the investigation by Malaysia’s human rights commission Suhakam. In particular, the criminal methods used by Taib’s government and cronies to prize away valuable lands from its native people. These methods include violence, coercion
What better sign of BN’s panic that they may lose this election than the frantic handouts and sudden promises of ‘projects’ that we have been seeing this week? In 2008 the average election bribe that BN paid to poor rural folk per vote was a mere RM10. Yet this week the timber tycoon MP Tiong
The TV ‘adventurer’ Ben Fogle has gone public to express his regret at having taken on a highly paid role for the Sarawak Government as their tourism ambassador. He now acknowledges, along with the rest of the world, that Taib Mahmud has turned this part of the Borneo Jungle into an environmental disaster zone, where
Taib once famously urged that it was important to keep the people of Sarawak poor, so that they would be grateful for small sums. This is particularly important to BN at election time, because it means they can continue their corrupt practice of buying votes for a few ringgit and then use the power this
Sarawak Report has received a leaked copy of a devastating official report on the treatment of the natives of Sabah and Sarawak, which BN has been trying to keep secret until after the election. In the report Malaysia’s human rights commission Suhakam has lambasted Taib’s State Government on count after count over its conduct over
Voters in constituencies contested by the wealthy Sng Chee Hua have been reported as perplexed, because they have received ‘Membership Cards’ for his Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) without realising they had joined. Some such recipients have expressed themselves as downright angry, because they are already members of other parties! So what has been going on?
The UK-based NGO Global Witness has responded to Taib Mahmud’s bizarre offer to debate with them about the corruption and land grabbing under his regime in Sarawak. And their answer is “yes”. During an election period this will most likely leave opposition leaders like PKR’s Baru Bian and DAP’s Chong Chieng Jen somewhat amazed. Both
Sarawak Report can reveal that Taib’s eldest daughter, Jamilah, was dubbed “Princess Jamilah” while still at college in Canada, on account of her fabulous wealth. Fellow students at the Ottawa’s Carlton University were so amazed at the teenager’s conspicuous wealth, her designer outfits and grand accommodation, that they jokingly gave her the royal title. The
A loss-making Taib family company with share capital of just half a million ringgit was granted almost RM2billion in loans last December by the Malaysia Development Bank (PBMB), which is run by the Ministry of Finance using public money. The astonishing revelation is made all the more shocking by the fact that the Sarawak Chief Minister
Sarawak top lawyer, Alvin Chong, handily detailed his favourite tips for evading tax and the law on camera the other day. He thought he was briefing a prospective client, who turned out to be an investigative reporter. Chong’s practices are known to be widespread in Sarawak, especially using “nominees” to hide the real identities of
Just days after a devastating Global Witness film confirmed Sarawak Report’s allegations about the corruption of billionaire Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, another top international organisation has substantiated our reports about the neighbouring Chief Minister, Musa Aman. The world renowned Reuters news agency has published an explosive analysis of timber corruption in Sabah, triggered by the
Mishcon de Reya, the London lawyers who represent Taib and his son-in-law Sean Murray and firms Sakto, Sakti and Ridgeford Properties, have been warned to “stop defending the corrupt” and to ditch their most controversial clients. In a statement issued today the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) point out: “Mishcon de Reya’s relationship with the Taib
One of Britain’s top newspapers, The Independent, has reported that the adventure film maker Ben Fogle has just pulled out of his contract promoting Sarawak ‘eco-tourism’. In a front page story, followed by a double-page spread, the paper leads with the headline “How Sarawak Made A Monkey Out Of Ben Fogle”. Fogle had allowed himself to
Huang Lung Ong is the lawyer who was caught on video representing the Hii family in their attempt to sell the 32,000 hectares of forested land licensed for plantation under their company Billion Venture. Sarawak Report can now further reveal that this lawyer appeared to be withholding crucial evidence from his prospective buyer…
The people of Sarawak are still digesting the arrogance of the Abdul Rahman sisters, revealed in the Global Witness expose on the land grabs this week. Two of the eight sisters, who own companies given NCR land by their cousin the Chief Minister, explained in a secretly recorded interview how they consider their relationship with
The strain on Taib was there for all to see yesterday, after the corruption video exposing his family and his entire regime went viral. Speaking to journalists on camera yesterday a rambling Chief Minister attempted to appear jovial and easy-going, but his anger was barely concealed. First he tried to gag the Global Witness, in
For three years Sarawak Report has been detailing week in and week out the outrageous theft and destruction carried out by Taib Mahmud and his family against Sarawak and its people. We have been called liars and all our evidence (mostly obtained from public records) has been denied. Lawyers have been hired to accuse us;
Recent statements from new investors in OM Holdings have exposed the Chief Minister’s shocking lack of concern over polluting industries in the state. OM Holdings is the Bermuda based company, which Taib has invited to invest in a vast manganese smelting plant in Simalaju, in return for giving his own family company CMS a 20%
Sarawak Report has received denials from the BBC that it has commissioned any of the material filmed by Ben Fogle in Sarawak. The trip, which was organised by a UK travel PR company, Hills Balfour, was paid for by the Sarawak State Government. However, much was made locally about the BBC’s supposed involvement. Fogle was
[Ben Fogle was a British ‘reality TV star’ some years back – we send him this open letter on his recent trip to Sarawak] Dear Ben Fogle, We have been watching your breathless reports in Hello Magazine, along with the various press releases and Twitter placements about your recent brave adventure into the jungles of Sarawak…
Malaysia and Sarawak and Sabah all gained democracy at the same time as independence. That means that the people are in charge and the politicians are named ‘servants’ of the people like they are in Britain and America and other democracies. These politicians have fixed salaries and should expect to be changed every few years
